3.4.17

Armenia: Voters Opt for More of the Same

Marianna Grigoryan

Armenia’s governing party consolidated its grip on power following
parliamentary elections marred by widespread allegations of vote-buying
and voter intimidation.

The governing Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) was the clear victor in
the April 2 elections, as expected, winning over 49 percent of the vote
and an apparent absolute majority of seats in parliament (55 out of
105). An alliance led by populist oligarch Gagik Tsarukyan was the
runner-up with 27 percent of the vote. Two other parties secured seats
in the legislature: the Yelk Alliance won just under 8 percent of the
vote; and the nationalist Armenian Revolutionary Federation, just under 7
percent.
Another bloc, featuring political heavyweights like former defense
minister Seyran Ohanian, 2013 presidential contender Raffi Hovannissian,
and former foreign minister Vartan Oskanian, won just over 2 percent
and will not be represented in the new parliament.
The Central Election Commission reported that turnout was about 61 percent.

A number of irregularities were reported on Election Day, including an instance in which at least two reporters were attacke as they pursued apparent cases of vote-buying.
Despite the strong indicators of skullduggery, RPA officials sounded a
triumphal note in reacting to the results. “This was a victory by all
political forces, civil society, by our citizens, indeed, this is not a
step, but rather a leap forward,” said Armen Ashotyan, deputy head of
the RPA.
These elections were significant in that they set the terms for a new
parliamentary system of government, under which executive power is
diminished and the authority of the legislative branch is enhanced. The
new parliament will elect a largely figurehead president in 2018 when
the term of the incumbent, Serzh Sargsyan, runs out. Under the new
arrangement, the prime minister will be head of state and
commander-in-chief of the armed forces.
“Armenia is moving to a new administrative system, and it’s extremely
important that these elections instill trust in Armenian citizens and
all our partners,” Sargsyan said at a meeting of the observation mission
delegation of the Commonwealth of Independent States.
Sargsyan’s post-2018 plans remain unclear, but critics have argued that
the constitutional changes pave the way for him to consolidate power,
either by becoming prime minister himself, or by enabling him to
continue to wield power behind the scenes.
The CIS monitors gave the elections rave reviews. The conditions under
which the vote took place “exceeded even Western countries, who were
teaching us how to correctly organize elections,” said Sergey Lebedev, the head of the mission.
Other outside observers were less impressed. “The elections were tainted
by credible information about vote-buying, and pressure on civil
servants and employees of private companies. This contributed to an
overall lack of public confidence and trust in the elections,” said the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe election monitoring mission in its preliminary assessment.
The vote itself was “well administered and fundamental freedoms were generally respected,” the OSCE statement added.
The leader of the Yelk Alliance, Edmon Marukyan, said that, according to
his party’s observations, their vote count was accurate. “So we have no
reason not to accept the results,” he told the Armenian service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
Local rights activists complained that the vote, like many others before
it in Armenia, was corrupted by vote-buying and intimidation. The
elections represented “the victory of perversion of all democratic
institutions,” said Avetik Ishkhanian, a prominent human rights activist
and the head of the Helsinki Committee of Armenia.
The RPA enjoyed a big advantage over its electoral rivals, given the
large numbers of Armenians who work in state-sector jobs, including
teachers, healthcare workers and soldiers. “They [state-sector
employees] depend on the government, they have to” vote for it, analyst
Ruben Mehrabyan told EurasiaNet. “Considering this, we need to prepare
for the next elections starting today, taking all that into account.”
These parliamentary elections saw the introduction of new electronic
equipment, including fingerprint scanners, intended to reduce voter
fraud. But a few experts said the equipment may have enabled, in some
instances, nefarious practices. Many voters were convinced that the
fingerprint scanners recorded information about who they voted for. “And
it worked, people were scared of those devices,” said analyst Armen
Badalyan.
Party activists intent on skewing the results appear to have played on
voters’ concerns, Badalyan alleged. “They said that if you took money
from the RPA or some other political group and if you dared to vote for
someone else, we will see that,” Badalyan said.
The election results were cause for cynicism among many Armenians.

“Many thought that they would wake up in a new Armenia but things went
the same way they always do,” Narine Galstyan, a 33-year-old linguist in
Yerevan, told EurasiaNet.org. “They have to accept the situation, or
understand that other methods are necessary for change.”